My initial plan was to move out of my parents' house to my own place around the end of this year. I mentioned this to one of my clients, completely forgetting he was also a realtor. He suggested I start looking now just to get an idea of what I want. We set up some searches based on my criteria, and the first house he pulled up (below) he commented "Hah, look at this weird house," to which I replied "...I love it."

I thought it was way out of my price range, so I've been looking at condos and townhomes. We went to see some places last weekend, and as a surprise he brought me to my little A-Frame last. I stepped in the house and immediately felt home. I want this house SO BAD.

I'm leaving work in about 2 minutes to go talk to my realtor's mortgage guy, hoping he gives me good news. Because of the taxes on the lot, our initial calculations show my monthly income slightly lower than I would need...but I already have two renters lined up to rent 2 of the rooms (and therefore pay most of the mortgage payment). If the numbers don't work for me alone, I'll be putting together a presentation for my dad to try to convince him to cosign on the mortgage.

Here's hoping it works out!

(Also, any words of wisdom or advice anyone has for a first-time homebuyer...I am ALL ears!)

Swap that dishwasher for something made this century as soon as possible. :P (no but seriously...the mess those things make when they break... ugh)

Strange that me and my SO are looking at houses now too... Hopefully soon we will be actually physically looking at them rather then just pics on the internet (we may be moving out of state soon because Arkansas has a bad case of the sucks).

Get a good inspector, and also have a plumber come in and inspect the sewer line. The Inspector won't check it, and the $50 to check a sewer line with a plumber, is worth avoiding a house with a bad one. The one I had inspected got an estimate of $14,000 to replace since it was caved in. I passed on that home when they refused to fix it.

Congratulations! Just get ready for everything to take longer than you think it should and be more complicated than you think it should be. Also, make sure you get a good contractor to do a thorough inspection while you're still in the beginning phases of escrow (when you can still pull out and get all your money back). When buying my house, I had my realtor's friend (turns out boyfriend) who is a contractor do the inspection for free as a favor to her. Long story short, he was lazy and not good at his job and there were many things he missed that we would have known about beforehand if we hadn't tried to save a buck on the inspection. It's not a good place to cut corners (although thankfully everything did turn out ok with my house).

Super adorable house, I hope it goes well! As a current apartment dweller, I can't exactly give you any words of wisdom when it comes to the home buying process. Thus, I'll just comment to compliment the cute abode :). (And remember this thread when I'm in your shoes in the future!)

Glad your on your way to becoming a homeowner! As a techy, currently licensed Realtor, and former home inspector, I applaud you starting your search. Since selling real estate since 2009, one thing first time home buyers need to look for is a home that they can afford (on their own, without renters), find something that you can gain equity quickly in (like a home below market value or needs some TLC and minor things to really make it shine), and something that you can sell in the next 5 to 7 years fairly quickly.

Let me take a second below to explain:

1. You have to be able to afford it on your own. Lenders will not consider rental income as part of your debt to income ratio. In fact, I wouldn't even bring up renters as some loan programs forbid renting your property. Also, check with any local, first time home buyer programs in your area. Here in NE, one program just has you take a few home ownership classes and what not, but they give you some funding. Also, depending where you live, check to see if there are any 100% financing programs. USDA has a 100% loan program, but depends on your state, income and population of city your living in. It may very state to state. Many lenders do not do USDA loans. If available, find a lender that does.

Having money to put down. If you have got 20% down for a conventional loan, that's great. Gets your payment down and lenders will not charge you Mortgage Insurance. I think Mortgage Insurance is now life of the loan for FHA loans. So you'll pay that for the next 30 years unless you gain equity and refi later on down the road. Chances are though, interest rates will go up from here, so it's a gamble. But having money down is key, and also some backup for after the purchase for major repairs that might happen. Remember, no home inspector will tell you when your furnace or water heater will fail. It might be the day after closing. Always ask the sellers to pay for home warranty for the first year to cover major stuff like HVAC.

2. Find instant equity. Find that property that is below market value or only needs a little curb appeal. Light TLC, some paint, change out fixtures, etc.... Some inexpensive upgrades. This might be harder than you think. First you have to determine what you want in a property. Then look at comparables and study them. When your agent finds you a property that meets your criteria and you think it is at or below what it should be, jump on it. I'll be honest, some agents don't price homes correctly. Many FSBO just don't know how to price their home, many are over priced. Study the market, learn the market, learn the areas, learn the school districts, and you'll know when that deal arrives. But you must act quickly when you find that property, but also don't jump into something if your not comfortable.

3. I think the average length of time in a first time home buyer's home is 5 to 7 years. Think about this when buying. You want something that you can live in and enjoy, but if things change (job, marriage, etc..), you're able to sell quickly and for a profit. In the house above, remember what the agent said! In my opinion, my guess is 95% of the home buyers that see this house are saying the same thing. I'm not saying it's bad, but if and when you have to sell, think about how much more difficult it will be to sell compared to other homes in the area. You can make quirky cute, but can you make quirky sell is the key. Also, remember, LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION, still stands true.

That was my tidbits of knowledge for first time home buyers. I could type for hours, but I have to clock out :) Just take your time, be thorough, and don't rush into something. Also, be sure you are pre-approved by a lender!

(we may be moving out of state soon because Arkansas has a bad case of the sucks).

The wife and I have a plan to be the hell out of Arkansas by 2017, made that 5 year plan at the beginning of 2012.

We bought a house anyway and plan on renting it out to pay the mortgage (and some so we get it paid off sooner) and keeping it as a rental property once we pay it off to make a little money since the market here in Bentonville for rental homes is strong. And if we ever get sick of keeping it up once we do pay it off, we can sell it for a nice fat chunk of moolah (for investment in either a MM account or another rental property).

I have 3 years left on my mortgage and hopefully get it paid off sooner. Now I am looking at replacing the kitchen as it dates back to the early 90s next year and then start redoing all of the rooms after that and then a new roof and windows. Also get an electrician to take a look at the wiring to make sure it is up to code as a lot of inspectors just look at the basics.

Open things up and look behind the wall plates and in crawl spaces. do a candle test around the doors and windows and watch. this is best done on a windy day as it will show you if there is a draft that can lead to an expensive repair. Look for water damage on the walls and ceiling.

but good luck and we know you will get it so start planning the house warming party so we can all show up.

I can almost afford the house on my own with the 45% DTI ratio, so with at least one renter (and a cosigner) I'm set. BUT...after my meeting with the mortgage guy we went to see the house again to take some more in-depth pictures, and it's WAY more of a fixer-upper than it initially seemed. There's a bunch of electrical work that's not to code, a few light switches that don't work, mice, mold in the basement... all the drywall in the basement looks like it was replaced at hip height and below (and whoever did it didn't do that great of a job). That means they likely got quite a bit of water that flooded the basement. In our area we did have a really bad storm that knocked out power a few years back, but our basement didn't flood ﻿nearly﻿ that much. My realtor said it might be a grading issue (?) with the land, I guess meaning that it slopes towards the house, and that could be expensive to fix.

Because of how much is wrong with the house, we're pretty sure I can get it for really cheap...but I can't nearly afford it without getting a rehab loan. I feel it could be an awesome investment and I could really turn it into a beautiful home befitting the pictures, but I'm not sure if I want to make this big of a commitment to it right now knowing how much work it's going to be.

Good luck and the house is very cool. i love houses with character. Just be careful, you say mortgage broker and I hope you mean mortgage officer at a bank/CU. Mortgage Brokers as in the stand alone business are responsible for most of the sub prime mortgage mess that got us in such a mess. well it started with them it goes from there to the bundlers then to wallstreet ext... but anywho they are sales men and they get a commission and the business usually sells the mortgage off right away to a bundler so they dont mind giving risky mortgages where as most banks and CUs hold on to the loan and make it in their best interest to allow you to get a house you can actually afford. you should get a house but just be careful, and if taxes are owed on the house have them bring the price down... you dont need to walk into a mortgage thats already upside down.

edit: doh you updated as i was reading and writing here, sorry about now getting it =/

That stinks that it is becoming such an unsure thing now. My husband and I are looking to buy within the next year and a half, so I will be in your shoes soon. Fixing up a house can be fun (or at least in my mind it is), but the amount of money and time that this one sounds like may just be too much. Is there any way the current owners can pay for some damages? I have seen that happen on House Hunters before haha.

I can almost afford the house on my own with the 45% DTI ratio, so with at least one renter (and a cosigner) I'm set. BUT...after my meeting with the mortgage guy we went to see the house again to take some more in-depth pictures, and it's WAY more of a fixer-upper than it initially seemed. There's a bunch of electrical work that's not to code, a few light switches that don't work, mice, mold in the basement... all the drywall in the basement looks like it was replaced at hip height and below (and whoever did it didn't do that great of a job). That means they likely got quite a bit of water that flooded the basement. In our area we did have a really bad storm that knocked out power a few years back, but our basement didn't flood ﻿nearly﻿ that much. My realtor said it might be a grading issue (?) with the land, I guess meaning that it slopes towards the house, and that could be expensive to fix.

Because of how much is wrong with the house, we're pretty sure I can get it for really cheap...but I can't nearly afford it without getting a rehab loan. I feel it could be an awesome investment and I could really turn it into a beautiful home befitting the pictures, but I'm not sure if I want to make this big of a commitment to it right now knowing how much work it's going to be.

Ugh :(

That is a shame, but if you can't afford the home by yourself, you definitely can't afford to fix it. By the sound of it you would be throwing way to much money into it. The bright side is there will always be another house.

Set up a new checking account that will only be used for your mortgage and use direct deposit to put in as much as you can comfortably afford into that account, then you can live on the rest. This is what I did when I bought my first home last year. Now at this point I have a few extra months payments for my mortgage saved up for emergencies.

I considered paying an extra months payment (as suggested by a few coworkers) since they said that if you make 13 payments every year you can shave 5-7 years off of a 30 year mortgage. While that sounds like a great idea if this is going to be the home I live in the rest of my life I probably plan on getting a new home in 5-10 years and probably would make the 13 payments on that home since that would be more likely to be my dream home. Also after getting married and buying a home in the same year I kind of needed to re-build the cash reserves.

Well the good news is that one of my colleagues who's an expert with pretty much anything to do with construction has offered his help. I'm going to set up a final visit with him involved so he can give me a real idea of the costs to get the house liveable. He said if I do most of the work myself it should keep the costs down (which I plan to do anyway), so...here's hoping.

@MPerreault - I plan to do that or something similar. Right now, fully half of my check each week goes into savings, so I know I can live on 50% of my salary.

Things would be a bit tight, but I could afford the mortgage on my own, but unfortunately if it's over that 45% DTI ratio they won't even consider it. Rent income would make things more comfortable, and allow me to continue to save money. If I can't get a rehab loan though, this house is an absolute "no," as I know I wouldn't be able to afford the repairs with a standard mortgage - and right now, in my opinion the house is not liveable.